In The Shadow
by Viable-Solution
Summary: Sequel to The World Keeps Turning. Several years after the CornerianEarth war. Daniel Craeburn and Aerial Fortner got married and two kids were born. However, for both of them their parents reputation is one that they are expected to live up to. T rating
1. Son of a hero

_**Jacob Craeburn shivered**_ as he rose up from bed. He took a slow look around and clutched his covers. The small seven year old crawled out of bed and started walking down the dark, endless hallways of his house. He walked past his sisters room, past the bathroom, to his parents room. He nervously reached up with his hand and knocked two or three times, still holding onto a small light blue blanket he seemed to take everywhere with him. There was a minute before the door slowly opened and the sight of a tall gray wolf filled the door frame, dog-tags catching the light that came from the bathroom. He looked down after yawning, scratching behind his dark red tipped ears and then crossing his arms as he leaned on the wood.

"What do you need Jake?" He asked with a small smile. Taking slow breaths he relaxed a little. There were a few red marks that he had across his chest in weird patterns, like cut marks.

"Dad...can I sleep with you? Theres something in my room..." Jake asked quietly as he looked at the ground.

"No Jake, this would be the fifth night in a row, just go back to bed..." He turned around and was about to close the door when Jake reached out and grabbed his olive green sweat pants. Jake's Dad slowly turned his head to look what his son was doing.

"Please Dad?! Last night I promise!" He begged, his voice slowly getting louder.

There was a long moment of silence as a breath was drawn "Last night...I don't want to look outside my door to see my seventeen year old son wanting to sleep in my bed..."

Jake smiled and hurried in, jumping in bed by his mother and getting comfortable.

"Good night Jake..." he said slowly with another yawn.

"Good night Dad..."

_**Ten years later...**_

Jake grinned as he listened to the engine of his Ford Mustang purr contently in his garage. A new metal band he liked was blazing through the speakers his father had helped him install. "Red Sun Falls" was the name of the band, and he was hooked the second he had heard them.

"Come on Jake! Are you almost done?!" the voice of his friend pierced the music.

"Almost! Turn off the track!"

Silence suddenly engulfed the garage and Jake turned a few knobs on a device in his car. As if by magic the voice of a police officer came through.

_"Affirmative, we are at the location, we are getting out and heading to the door now..._" There was cussing heard as Jake's friend, Maya a sixteen year old brown rabbit ran to the car window.

"Cops, at the door, come on hide it!"

Jake nodded in response and pressed a button, flipping the police scanner over, making it look like a meaningless device he had claimed to "randomly" put in the car.

The door from the garage to the house opened and there stood his father, a five foot eleven gray wolf with red ear tips and a red tipped tail. He stood with a disapproving, albeit harmless, look on his face as an old black police officer with a younger white one standing behind him.

"Jake...there was a report of excessive noise abuse coming from our garage, have you been blasting anything?"

Maya stepped back and put her hands in the air "His idea..."

Jakes father looked at Maya "Maya, I trust you two to be alone in a room, don't ruin it,"

She slowly nodded and Jake chuckled from the drivers seat "Yea dad...I'm sorry, lost in the moment of tuning this engine,"

The officer stepped forward "Well son since your father has convinced us not to fine, this is your one warning, alright? I don't want to be here again,"

Jake nodded and watched as the three adults closed the door, his dad coming out and closing the garage door "Theres a reason we have a sound proof garage," he walked inside.

Maya walked over and rested a hand on the hood of the 2007 Mustang and smiled "Well, aren't they musical sticks in the mud?"

Jake got out and smiled as he looked Maya over. The rabbit was wearing somewhat baggy jeans that were kept on her waist by a belt, going higher she had an open mid drift that was cut off by a white tank top. Her long light brown hair waved carelessly in front of her face, and her ears seemed more relaxed then they should be.

"Nah, my dads cool when the cops aren't around,"

"I guess..."

Jake grinned and looked himself over, he had been working on the engine, just not much. He himself wore baggy pants, however they barely fit if he were to take his belt off, slide to the floor barely fit. He wore a blue and black shirt which had a symbol on it which had long since faded away after countless washings and time in water and dirt. He usually always wore a snow cap which pushed his larger than normal ears down under neath. He had dark gray fur, and had only one truely distinguishing mark. His charcoal gray muzzle. The thing that made it more interesting, was that part of it branched out to cover his left eye, making it look like a scar.

"_**He's just being**_ a musical kid Aerial," Dan laughed and sat down as he waved off the officers and began to eat his lunch "whats the problem with that?"

"Nothing, its just the fact that the cops are coming and talking about it almost every other month," she replied with a small grin "of course, he is your kid,"

He said nothing in response, but continued to eat. He finally grew a questioning look and tore his eyes away from his sandwich "Wheres Kara?"

"She's out with her friends doing something, I don't know, movie maybe," Aerial responding sitting down and adjusting her necklace. She wore pretty much what she did ten years ago, slightly loose jeans, a small white shirt with a slightly larger and thinner over shirt. She had pierced her right ear twice in the years since the war ended. Or at least re pierced them.

Dan wore baggy dark blue jeans and a large black and gray Linkin Park shirt. He still wore his dog tags, and still occasionally played his guitar with the members of StarFox that knew how to play. He still kept in contact with most of his buddies. For some reason, Cole hadn't responded in several years.

"As long as she's back before ten I won't care," Dan replied finishing up and leaning back in his chair.

"Yea, and then you end up freaking out at six," Aerial replied with a tongue stuck out.

"Hey, you try being a guy and having your daughter dating, its a weird thing, do you know how many times I wanted to-"

"Hey dad!" Jake ran in "I'm going to take a drive to Jerry's, mind if I borrow some money?"

Dan was dumbfounded and shrugged, reaching into his wallet "Start making your own money for your own food, otherwise you eat here,"

"Find dad, just please give me the money!"

"Yea yea..." he produced a fifty "If I don't get any change back, your ass is up at four every morning for the next week to work, got it?"

"Got it! See you dad! Thanks!" he ran out and there was the loud roar of his cars engine starting up.

"Your going to make your son believe he can play you for a fool one day," Aerial said as she walked into the light coming through the window, her brown and white fur shining for a split second.

"Let him believe what he wants..." Dan got up as Aerial began to do dishes "for now, its you and me..." he grinned and wrapped his arms around her waist.

She let go a small giggle and gave him a small kiss "Dishes first..." she produced a playful smile and Dan nodded, laughing and walking into the living room.

_**The bright sun**_ glared down through the clear blue Earth sky on the blood red Ford Mustang as Jake powered down the street. Maya was grinning and relaxing when Jake suddenly pulled on the E-break and power slid across a corner, and slowing down as they came onto a smaller road. She didn't say anything as he pulled over and took a deep breath.

"This thing handles like its a newer model..." he said smiling at her and tapping the wheel lightly.

"Yea, too bad you haven't gotten those black tribal decals on yet eh?" Maya asked shrugging and leaning back

"Oh they're coming...I just need to convince my parents that its my car and I want to do that with it..."

"Your dads cool, he might allow it."

"Yea but my mom's more worried about my safety than my dad...for some reason my dad thinks I have some gift like he did or something like that, he speaks really oddly sometimes..."

"Maybe you do..." Maya shrugged and sat up "whats that?"

Jake looked around looking for what Maya was looking at. He finally saw cars speeding by and power sliding around corners.

"Street racers..." a smile crawled across his face.

"Go get em boy..." Maya took a deep breath and braced herself. She was greeted with the roar of the engine and the cars sudden acceleration.

Within seconds, at least it seemed that way, he was on the tails of the other cars. Maya counted four of them. Jake didn't seem to think as he slowly began to weave between cars in the way as he closed the distance. A few miles up the road, red smoke was slowly climbing up into the endless sky. She saw Jake's eyes dart to the right and she recognized the look and immediately braced herself. He turned sharply right into a construction zone. There were countless thuds as he weaved between vehicles, workers, and poles. Eventually he came out onto the main road ahead of the racers. He hit the nitrous Maya and him had worked on and shot ahead, driving past the finish line. He held the power break and spun 180 degrees around a good quarter of a mile away from the finish line, slowly driving to the sidelines. There were cheers that slowly died down as they realized who had "won" and several walked by with looks of murder. One man however, came to the window. Jake put it down, and the man began to talk.

"Good stuff kid, never seen a 2007 Mustang perform this well..."

"Yea, she loves to run," he replied softly, looking at the passing cars. Spotting a 2007 Corvette Z06, a Mitsubishi Eclipse, a Ford GT, and a Toyota Supra. The former cars being in the race.

"Well, listen, if you can keep doing things like that, I can get you connections for things like parts, tune ups--"

"--Vinyls?!" Jake bursted out.

The man thought for a minute and laughed "Yea, those too, so whaddya say kid? Show up here two thirty Saturday morning, see if you can come even close to beating me?"

Jake looked at Maya who shrugged and then back at the stranger "You got it,"


	2. A hero's pride and joy

_**A/N: The rating might go slightly up for more descriptive parts. I'm going to work more on describing my characters better. If you don't like what is in this chapter, do not comment, or live with it. There will be nothing explicit. Please Enjoy the chapter.**_

****

**_Mary M. Bosch is copyright to her owner, Mary M. "Tomboy" Bosch. See her work here midnight-vixen. Craeburn laughed_** with her friends as they made fun of her wannabe badass brother. Amy had brought up the old car he had bought and for some reason enjoyed riding in. To her, it was a large piece of garbage that would just break down in a few years. But let him enjoy the waste of money, thats what her and her friends said all the time. They were sitting in a resteraunt in the Twelve Oaks mall in the city of Novi. She hated it in Michigan, it bothered her that the population was for the most part, human. But her mother and father loved being where they were. Something about loving to live where they were raised. She didn't get it, probably never would. They should be in Lylat, on Corneria where there were more anthro's than humans.

"So, Amy, has Conner asked you out yet?" her friend Casey asked, the leopard asked leaning forward, ears perking up.

Amy went slowly quiet and looked at the ground "Not yet..." she replied shrugged and brushing some of her blond hair out of her eyes. Beginning to mess with her white fur.

Compared to her brother who got the dominant wolf gene, she got her mothers collie gene and had finer fur than her dad and brother. She did have her fathers muzzle however, as well as his golden eyes. Her mother had a hard time breathing through her nose sometimes, but that was never a problem for Amy. Her fur was white with brown spots, and her ears were different colors, one white and the other completely brown. She was wearing two blue shirts, one under the other. She was an average size, no matter what you were talking about, height, weight, even chest size.

"Why not? You've been winding him up so well," the one human in the group chimed in, Chelsea.

"I'm not sure...I know he doesn't have a girlfriend," Amy shrugged.

They all went silent for a few minutes "Isn't he friends with your brother?"

Amy winced "He's Jake's guitarist...your not suggesting,"

"Start taking more part in the band Amy!" they all said in unison, as if they were pre programmed.

"What could I do for the band?" she asked leaning back.

"Well, he needs a bassist, and you both like the same type of music, with the exception of a few bands," Christina Lombardi replied, the blue avian said laughing. She was like her father, including a slight mohawk. The rest of her head feathers were tipped with a dark red and spiked out in the back, being treated like hair more than feathers. Due to an incident with a knife a few years ago, she was blind in her right eye, and a large flesh colored scar broke the red consistency surrounding her experienced optics.

"I don't know if I would be able to live in the same band as my brother, I mean hes so...so..."

"Well, whatever you decide, I gotta go! See ya!" Christina suddenly got up and took off in the opposite direction. Before they could wonder why they heard someone start to talk.

"Did I hear about your brother for a second?" a playful voice played across their ears.

"Oh crap...Mary..." they all chuckled a little as the five foot two fox came up and shrugged, smiling.

She wore a pair of jeans with part of the legs rolled up. She also wore what looked like two shirts, the top layer was blue with a white stripe through the chest with a purple seven and the sleeves rolled up slightly, the bottom layer was a long sleeved green shirt. Her fur was orange, a brown spot covering the top side of her muzzle. She had long brown hair, wore a cross necklace, had two earrings. One was a cross, the other was a regular earring. Sometimes she wore her glasses, but others she didn't.

"Hey guys," she smiled and sat down, pushing back the chair so she was leaning "what were you talking about Jake for?" her white tipped tail swished contently behind her, the strange black "M" separating the white from the orange catching the attention of humans who had not seen her before.

"We think Amy needs to join his band, get closer to Conner," Casey replied resting her arms on the table.

"Thats a good idea, why don't you Amy?" Mary asked with an interested look "I was thinking about trying to do something for them,"

Chelsea grew an amused look and leaned over to Casey "Just to get closer to Jaaaacob," she teased.

Mary looked away and looked at the ground while giving a small cough.

Amy laughed and gave a small smile "Other than he puts that rap crap in it?"

"Whats wrong with rap?" they all asked at once "music is music Amy," Chelsea went back to her seat "as long as your blaring it, I don't see a problem with it, its not like he's talking about how many joints he smokes,"

Amy looked at the ground "True..."

Chelsea started to tap her fingers on the table and looked up with her hazel eyes "Hey, what happened to Jessica?"

Casey looked at her "McCloud? Yea, why hasn't she been hanging around us lately?"

Amy chuckled a little "Wow, you don't get anything she sends you, do you? Shes sick,"

Chelsea blushed a little and shook her head, her red hair swaying as she did so "Nah...partially because she can't seem to get ahold of me..."

Amy sighed "Well, I'm curious to see what she's doing, one of you gonna come with me and see what shes up to?"

Chelsea suddenly looked at the ground "I don't know...Mr. McCloud doesn't seem to like me too much..."

"Thats because you make him feel old by calling him Mr. McCloud, and trust me, its been rough for him in the past fifteen or so years..."

"Why's that?" Casey asked.

Amy and Chelsea stared at her with raised eye brows "You mean you don't know something Chelsea does?!" Amy yelled, nearly flying over the table.

"Yea..." Casey recoiled in her seat and slid down, trying to make herself less visible.

Chelsea laughed "I WIN! Finally!"

Amy laughed and slowly calmed down, looking at the ground, waiting for Chelsea to finish before looking Casey in the eyes "Krystal...his wife...she died on a mission, a year or so after they got married, after my parents did..."

"Oh...well...I guess ill come." she stood up and grabbed her jacket, putting it on slowly.

"Alright, see you Casey,"

"Hey! What if I want to come?!"

"When do you ever want to see the McClouds?"

"Good point..."

Amy grabbed her gray hoody and put it on, smiling and shrugging "I just know my way through people eh?"

Casey rolled her eyes and waved her hands as if to shoo them off. Amy and Chelsea got out into the parking lot and Amy unlocked the doors to her car and got in. Looking at Chelsea as she buckled in and crossed her arms.

She started the car and began to pull out when Chelsea began to talk "Why do you let me hang around? I know how much you tend to dislike humans..."

Amy blinked a couple times and turned into the street in the direction of Fox's house "I don't know, you seem different than most of them,"

"Uuh huh, how so?"

"Well, Chelsea, I'm the only one of our group of friends who has seen all those pictures you've drawn of yourself as a German Shepard," she have her a skeptical look as she slid lower in her seat.

"You saw those?"

"Yea,"

"I didn't think anyone would...heh...sorta pathetic eh?" she asked, hoping to make a joke out of it.

"No, not really, whats so wrong about it?" Amy asked, continuing to drive down the street.

"Its just...a human wanting to be like an anthro? Who does that? Its just weird..."

"Not really, anthros are better than humans anyway," she flashed Chelsea a playful look, but stopped when she saw Chelsea wasn't amused "Sorry...but listen, I won't tell anyone, just relax and live life, its not like we're waiting to bite your head off, or something along those lines," her paw slowly moved over her head and shaking it like she was holding a thing of salt. Chelsea slowly grew a smile and knocked the hand away.

"Yea, whatever, furry little mutt,"

"Hey, don't knock it till you try it," she spit her tongue out and pulled off the freeway they had gotten on minutes before and turned onto a private road. Rain started to come down and fog became apparent. The thermometer in the car started to show the air outside getting slowly colder.

"This is where Mr. McCl...Fox, lives?" Chelsea asked sitting up again.

"Yea, this is his 'Earth' home, you could say," Amy nodded "He hasn't gone back to Lylat in a while I don't think..."

They slowly pulled up to a nice looking house, painted a dark green/blue with some of it painted white. They got out, and walked up to the doorstep, knocking a couple times.

The door opened and a fox appeared in the door way and smiled "Hey, its my bitch, whats up?" she asked with a chuckle.

"Yea, very funny Jessica, feeling better?"

"Yea, I'm feeling a lot better since I found out we didn't have homework at school for the past two weeks," she took a long sigh, as if savoring the taste of the words, her eyes slowly turned to Chelsea "hey Chelsea, whats up?"

Chelsea stared at the five foot five fox in the doorway. She observed her, moving from her feet up. Jessica wasn't wearing any shoes, socks, or slippers, leaving her patted feet visible and bare. The top part of her feet were covered by her pink Pajama pants, an Arwing design prominent. She was wearing a pure white hoody and her hands were tucked into the pocket on the front. Despite the largeness of her undershirt (which was coming from under the hoody) and hoody, her breasts were very apparent. Her long dark orange hair came out over the right side of her face, purple stripes coming down and back from the pony tail in the back. Her ears were relaxed and her gold eyes were somewhat welcoming to the human.

"Hey..." she smiled and put her hands in her pockets "came to see how your doing,"

"Thanks, I appreciate it...the only thing is...Falco is here, Falco and Katt," Jessica shrugged with a sympathetic smile "We're surrounding you Chelsea..." she grinned and took a couple steps forward, Amy turning around and bringing her hands forward, fingers outward as if she was going to dig her nails into Chelsea.

She shivered and gave them both a gentle push away "Yea...suuuuure, we going to stay outside forever?"

"Its not that cold..." they looked at each other.

"I don't have fur, and its raining, its cold to me..." she looked at the ground.

"We're just messing around Chelsea, yea come on in," Jessica stepped back inside "Dad! Amy and Chelsea are here!"

"Alright, thanks Jessica!" a voice yelled back.

"Why is Falco here?" Amy asked kicking off her shoes.

"He's just visiting, checking up on my 'dad'," she quoted, using her fingers to exemplify.

"Why did you 'quote' dad?" Chelsea was confused.

"Me and my brother are adopted," Jessica shrugged and leaned against the pole at the end of the stairs.

"Sorry...I didn't know..."

Jessica shook her head "Hey, I didn't say anything, I love Fox, he's a great guy...better than my actual father, he was an ass hole..."

There were footsteps, as if on cue, and Fox and Falco walked into the room "Hey Amy, Chelsea," Fox nodded and grinned looking at Amy "hows your dad doing? Still trying to keep Jake under control?"

Amy laughed and shook her head "No Fox, I think he's given up and left my mom alone there,"

"Well, more power to him, maybe he can look after my kids too,"

Jessica pointed a them at Fox as he spoke, giving a grin.

"Maybe, he could," she smiled, trying not to laugh as Jessica started to walk up the stairs and make faces at her father, making the 'come on' motion with her hands.

Chelsea walked forward "Well...Fox...we're gonna head upstairs if thats alright..."

He put a hand in front of her and she looked at him "Thanks for not making me feel old this time Chelsea, I appreciate it," he moved his hand and Amy followed Chelsea, but stopping at fox.

"She had a little help you know."

"Ill see if I can pay you for it," Fox shrugged and watched them run upstairs.

When Amy got in Jessica was cross legged on the bed with an amused grin on her face.

"Whats this?" Amy asked taking a seat next to her.

Jessica looked at her and then at Chelsea, nodding her head in Amy's direction.

Chelsea looked at her "Well...I have a crush on-"

Jessica couldn't contain herself "Josh Triskan!" she laughed playfully and fell backwards.

"Isn't he a rabbit?" Amy asked, slightly amused.

"Yea, Maya Triskan's brother, your brothers friends brother," Jessica was having too much fun.

"Yea..." Chelsea stared blankly at the bed "I was looking for some advice on how to get him to say yes...or to notice me...Jess, isnt helping!" she gridded through her teeth.

"Sorry, oh this is just so weird, a human crushing on an anthro,"

"Amy has a crush on Conner Johnson..." Chelsea laid back.

Jessica laughed even harder "He's a human though!" she sat back up "Isn't he?"

Amy sighed and nodded "Yea, whats so wrong with it?"

Chelsea finally smiled "Finally, someone agrees,"

Jessica shrugged "Its just weird, I mean I sorta have a crush on your brother, but..."

Amy threw her hands up "How many people have a crush on my damn brother?!" she let out a frustrated sigh.

"Just me and Mary as far as I know," Jessica stopped laughing.

"He's nothing special...just an ass hole..."

"To you maybe," Jessica laughed and remembered the day they were all at the lake and she almost got Jake alone about seven times.

"Don't get me started..." Amy sighed "Lets focus on Chelsea..."

"Right...welll...I can't really...help." Jessica started to laugh "Amy you start!" she cracked up and Amy went and shut the door.

"So, Chelsea, the best way to get to a mans heart is to..."


	3. Cars go fast, so does life

_**Jake sat in**_ his Mustang and sighed, watching people walk past and give him dirty looks. He ignored them and looked at Maya who decided to come with him, she had her eyes closed and was sleeping while they waited for the man they had talked to a couple days earlier. He was about to give up when a flashy looking BMW crawled up beside the car and began to rev its engine. Jake looked out the window and grinned as he saw it was the man. He hit Maya gently a couple times, causing her to wake up, and started his engine. The light cycled green and they put the pedal to the floor, their tires spinning before finding traction and taking off. It suddenly hit Jake as he began weaving through traffic that it might not have been the best idea to take the challenge. But he was already too far in to get out, he was going to finish the race.

"Are you sure this was a good idea?" Maya asked strapping herself into the car.

"Not anymore, but I win this I win some vinyls," He quieted down and kept driving.

They broke out into a public roadway which happened to not be busy at the time. They began to drift around corners and keep going. Jake pulled out ahead and was smiling when he saw a woman in a wheel chair about to cross the road, two kids behind her. He turned to the left sharply and held on the break. He stopped on the sidewalk and turned to watch as the man tried to turn as well, but hit the woman, sending the body flying over the car, and the wheelchair off to the side. Jake was in shock as it hit the side of his car, and as the BMW continued to drive on. Despite the fact he had just, in all likeliness, killed a woman in front of her kids. He got out as fast as he could, hearing Maya climb over the top of the Mustang and over to the kids. Jake, however, ran over to the woman lying limp on the ground, face down. Tears came to his face as he fumbled inside his jacket to get his cell phone. He dialed 9-1-1 and waited, whimpering slightly.

"_Nine-One-One, what is your emergency?_"

Jake was almost yelling "Yea, there's been an accident! A woman in a wheelchair got hit hard in a street race I was in!" He winced as he knew that there was no way he could avoid getting the brunt of the attack now.

"_Alright, give me the street address and an ambulance will be on its way!_" The woman's slightly monotone voice came to that of un ease.

There was another voice that came on "_Son? This is Officer Barkley, I need to know everything that happened!_"

"Alright...I was in a street race..."

_**Dan slammed the door**_ on his car and gridded his teeth together.

"I'm going to KILL that kid!" He started the engine and pulled out, heading towards the street address given to him by the police. When he got there, there were flashing lights and a woman being loaded into an ambulance. Jake was sitting alone on the hood of his car, Maya was giving her side of the story, and an officer was trying to comfort two other kids who were there. Most likely no older than ten or so.

He got out and began walking forward. Before he could take four steps an officer was in front of him.

"Daniel Craeburn? I'm officer Barkley, your son was in a street race and-"

"I know, he hit someone!" he yelled trying to get the cop out of his way. But the cop stood where he was.

"Actually, he didn't, he had stopped and called us," he said looking at the wolf looking at the ground "the other guy was long gone when we got here, but he gave us the license plate number and...we're trying to find him,"

Some of Dan's anger left him as he realized his son didn't try to cover it up "Alright, let me talk with him,"

Jake looked up morosely at his father and stood up. He walked forward and Dan could see he had been crying "Sorry dad...I'm so sorry..."

He looked at the kids, the ambulance which was slowly growing smaller, and then back at Jake "Don't worry, I'm just glad you had the guts to stop and call them, then me," he nodded.

"I'll understand if you wanna take the car dad, I was caught up in the thought of getting some real excitement..."

"Just don't worry about it," Dan sighed and scratched his head "I don't want this shit happening again...there are things I wish you would do...but," he looked at the kids again "I'm not going to tell you, its your life, you live it," with that Dan turned around and gave Jake a look "Jake, this happens again, I'm taking your car, selling it, and keeping the money," he started his car and began to drive away.

Jake started to grow angry as he looked down the street where the man had taken off earlier. He saw the kids and walked over. The officer that was trying to comfort them, a human officer, covered the kids, also human, and held out a hand "Not so fast! Step away!"

Jake stopped and sighed "Hey, I want to apologize for what happened to the lady, can I?!"

The officer thought for a minute before stepping aside, leaving the kids in the open.

Jake looked at them and then at the ground "I'm sorry for what happened to your mother...I really am, I wish I hadn't had any part of it," he told them with a small smile which quickly faded "But I did...and I apologize...can you forgive me?"

They looked at each other and the little girl started crying, the other one, a boy, looked at Jake and his lower lip began to quiver "Are you the one who hit her? My mommy?"

A tear fell from Jake's face "No...I'm not...but I know who did, I promise ill help the nice police men catch him, I promise,"

"I can forgive you..." the little girl stopped crying.

The boy nodded and clutched to his little sister. Jake got up and walked towards Maya.

"Maya..." he said stopping next to her "we're going to help the cops catch him..."

"How are we going to do that?"

Officer Barkley overheard the conversation and walked forward "Your not doing anything signifigant..." he thought for a minute "but you can get us the location of the next race he's in, just make sure you don't hint that you got caught, okay?"

Jake nodded and so did Maya "If you can help us, I won't put 'street racer' in bold on your files...deal?"

Again they nodded. Satisfied Barkley turned around and went back to his business.

"What now?"

"We wait for him to contact me..."

"How..."

Jake's phone began to ring and he called officer Barkley over "I answer a phone,"

_**Jessica couldn't help**_ but continue smiling at the conversation happening between her two best friends, that were present at least. For the past hour they had all been talking about how Chelsea could get the attention of an anthro, more specifically the rabbit Josh Triskan. So far, only stupid ideas had come up and they were about ready to call it quits.

"Lets face it Chelsea," Amy fell back and laid on the ground "your doomed to dating humans," she let out a chuckle.

"Yea...I guess so..." she sighed and buried her head in her arms.

"Yea, that wouldn't exactly be...normal..." Jessica chimed in "no one would ask a human out except another human...but..." she thought for a minute "why doesn't Chelsea ask him out?"

Chelsea and Amy looked at each other "Are you kidding?" Chelsea asked starting to laugh "we already thought of that, it wouldn't work if it was a date,"

"Then don't make it one,"

They all exchanged looks and Jessica continued "if you just say that you wanted to hang out, then maybe he'd start to like you," she shrugged.

"I guess that would work..." a small steady smile grew across Chelsea's face "yea...that actually might,"

"What about his sister? Won't she care?" Amy asked resting on her arm.

"Nah, she's too close to Jake to really care, she won't lose him..." Jessica seemed to get down a little but brought herself up "anyway lets-"

"Wait! Too close? What do you mean?" Amy asked getting closer.

"Well lets face it, she's known him for years, and he hasn't picked up the fact that she might have other possibilities for their 'friendship'," Jessica shrugged.

"Well..." Amy thought for a minute "guess your right,"

"Lets just hope he doesn't do anything stupid,"

"_**Alright, so next**_ sunday at five?" Jake asked looking at Officer Barkley, who was sitting next to a phone tap.

"_Thats right, sorry about that cop ordeal, what did you do to get them off your tail?_"

Jake looked at Barkley and he nodded, making the 'draw it out' motion "I just stopped, and looked concerned, said all that 'I'm sorry, it'll never happen again, here are my keys,' shit and they looked at my spotless record and decided that it was an accident,"

There was a moment of silence as if he was considering whether the words were true "_Good job, I didn't think you had it in you pup, alright, so-_"

Jake stopped him "You going to be where your at the rest of the time before Sunday?"

"_Yea, why you asking? You don't know do you?_"

He looked at Barkley who made the thumbs up "Nah, sorry to take up all this time, I'm just finding out the generalities, you know,"

There was a laughing "_Yea I know, but ill be fine, I'm more than a racer kid, see you Sunday, bring a pinkslip, because if you lose that cars mine,_" there was a ringing as he hung up the phone, and Jake followed suit.

Barkley thought for a minute "Alright, here's the plan, we're not going to bust him now...we'll wait till Saturday before the race when he won't be expecting us, Jake you and Maya have done enough, don't go Sunday, don't go anywhere near here," he showed them the position of the 'abandon' warehouse down eight mile road.

Jake just nodded and walked towards his Mustang, getting in and shutting the door, Maya gave him a concerned look "Whats the problem?"

Jake gave her a stone cold stare "We don't go anywhere until after Sunday...when they have the racers...but then..." he suddenly got a look of shock and he ran out to Barkley "Officer! Wait till Sunday!"

Barkley looked confused "Why? We already have a plan set up!"

Jake shook his head frantically "But, if you catch him before, he'll think I'm in on it and might try to get me, but if you make it look like me and Maya were arrested too before the race, or right at the finish line, then we might get off free,"

Barkley smiled slowly and nodded "Alright, you got it, that actually is a very sound plan son, you should think about SWAT team some day," he walked away.

"I'm a music man," Jake shrugged and ran to the car, turning it on, and driving off.

_**Jessica was getting**_ tired of talking about Chelsea's love life. It was fun for a little while, and then she learned they were truly being serious. She hated the thought of a human and anthro going out, it wasn't right, it wasn't nature's way. Of course there had been more obscene thoughts that she had heard before. She learned to get into the conversation somewhat and eventually was ready to give up. What anthro in the right mind would want to do that? They would be the laughing stalk of the entire world. But if they were willing to go through with it others might. All she knew for sure was that she was going to marry an anthro some day. No human would ever get to be more than a friend to her.

Jessica moaned and looked out her window, not bothering to listen to the talking. She grew a smile and looked at Amy "Hey, how about you call Jake and see if you can get into the band?"

That stopped the conversation cold "But...why?"

"Don't you want to get a hand or two on their drummer?" She asked with a toothy smile.

"The snow leapord who always wears the hat?" she asked "like my dopey brother,"

"Yea, whats his name? Travis McAuley?" Jessica asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yea...I think that's it...but nah, he's not the one I'm interested in," she shrugged.

"Well there's the vocalist Alan Woessner..." Jessica shook her head "but your not into him are you?"

"I still can't believe that the only one you like is that...Conner..." Jessica shivered a little "but hey...might as well check you know?"

She shrugged "I guess I don't blame you...or were you counting your other options?"

Jessica laughed a little "To tell the truth...I'm not entirely sure anymore,"

Chelsea started to laugh a little and then looked at Amy "Hey, call your brother, lets see if you can get into the band,"

She growled "Alright, fine..."

Jessica grinned "Yea, and we can get payed for just bein there, ah it'll be great eh Chelsea?"

She laughed and watched as Amy dialed Jake's cell phone number and put it on speaker phone. They paused as there was ringing and then the sound of Jake's voice.

"_Whaddya need Amy?_" he asked sounding somewhat interested "_You never call unless its something good, so what is it?_"

Amy looked around and then said "I was wondering if you still needed a bassist..."

There was a silence that took place and then Jake's laughing "_Yea, I do, but why would you want to be my bassist? You don't even like the music I make!"_

She swallowed deeply and looked at Chelsea and Jessica "Everyone has their reasons baby bro," she gave a short smile.

Jake let out a sigh and then muttered something "_Your lucky I need a bassist Amy, come to our practice in about...a month, I need to talk it over with the guys and then wait for Conner to get back from a vacation_,"

Amy smiled and nodded to herself "Alright, see you then," and she hung up the phone.

As if on cue Jessica and Chelsea began laughing. Amy waited for a minute before starting to laugh as well. Maybe it was going to work after all.

_**The following sunday**_

Jake closed his eyes in his car and listened to the com chatter silently. This was freaking him out, and it wasn't any better with Maya in the car, last thing he wanted was for her to get hurt. He opened them as a car screeched to a halt in front of him, the front license plate reading "Pushr" and then a couple numbers. Jake started his engine and smiled as the com chatter stopped and he saw the SWAT team getting into position to take out the car. His cell phone rang and he answered it.

"_Kid, best of luck to you...you'll need it,_" Jake couldn't say anything before he hung up.

"Yea...we both will..." Jake took a deep breath and started to spin his tires before letting go of the emergency break. Pusher went with him, and Jake grinned as his car suddenly popped four tires and began to spin out, it faded when his did the same. He fought to keep it under control and slowly came to a stop.

Turning around he heard gunfire and saw the man had gotten out of his car with a rifle and began to fire at the police. Jake got down as he aimed at his car and shot. He heard a scream and his heart skipped a beat as he realized Maya wasn't in the car. He watched through her open door Maya's body fall to the ground and begin to shake as she clutched at the wound in her chest. His eyes widened and he scuttled out and grabbed onto her hand.

"J...Jake..." she closed her eyes and winced as she touched her wound "Oh this hurts so badly..."

"First times do..." he smiled and grabbed her hand "MEDIC!" he turned and watched "Pusher" fall to the ground without expression as the SWAT team opened fire.

A man with a red cross on his arm ran over and began to look over her.

_**Everyone sat in **_ the waiting room for the news on Maya. Aside from the bullet wound that she had sustained, it was already infected and was starting to spread. Something had been coated on the bullet, noting seen before, something that they had confirmed reacted only to anthropomorphic blood. Along with that, the only cops fired on were anthro. The tiger doctor came out with his ears lowered.

"I don't think she's going to make it...this infection isn't one we've seen before...never even heard of...but its slowly shutting down her systems," he looked at his clipboard "at this rate she as at most...a month maybe...two...if nothing is found by the time it reaches her primary systems, then she's not going to make it..."

Dan looked over at Maya's parents and then at Jake. He stood up and walked over to Jake "Go in...ill keep her parents busy for you...all the time you need..."

He nodded and smiled "Your too good dad..."

Dan grinned and ruffled his head fur "Yea, now only if you'd take after me, go on, I got em..."

Jake got up and walked into the room past the doctor, who did nothing to stop him. At first Maya's parents got up as if to follow, but Dan stopped them and began to talk to them, they seemed to welcome it, but they all knew they just wanted to see their daughter.

Jake looked at the un concious Maya lying in her bed and took a seat. He looked over her and laid his head in his hands. This was unreal, why would this come all from just one race? He stammered as he began to talk.

"Hey Maya...its me...Jake...don't know if you can hear me, they say you can...I just want you to know...I-I'm sorry..." he began to choke as he bit his lower lip trying to find the words "if...you hadn't...been there you wouldn't be in this bed..." he began to cry softly "you wouldn't be dead before I asked you out..."


	4. Can things be okay?

_**Days crawled slowly**_ by and every time Jake saw the sun shining angelically through the glass he wanted to put it out. He hadn't been happy for the past five days, not a terribly long time. But every minute he waited in his bed half awake and half asleep was another minute Maya was suffering. He grabbed at his face and pulled on some of the fur he managed to grab a hold of before letting go and letting his arms fall to the bed. He looked over at his alarm clock and saw it was ten o clock in the morning. He rolled over to the right onto his hands and legs and began to do push ups. All he had done in the past five days to get his mind off of Maya was work out, try to figure out what he could do that would improve his chances of keeping stamina up, or even joining the SWAT team or USMC, the United Systems Marine Corps. After fifty or so he rolled onto his back and started to do crunches. He stopped after a few and looked at the bar he had installed on the ceiling. He took off his shirt and reaching up he got off the floor and jumped up, grabbing the bar and starting to do chin ups. There were knocks on the door and he grunted.

"Come in..."

He paused for a second as he realized it was Jessica McCloud who had walked in. She seemed in awe for a second, most likely assuming Jake had been lying in bed, Jake realized that she had something behind her back.

"Hey Jake..." she looked around as he continued his chin ups "You look...ummm...stronger," she said looking away with a grin.

"Yea...five days of this can do that..." he grunted again and paused, getting a breath and starting again.

"Heh, I can see that," she looked back at him and tilted her head "whats this?" she walked forward and traced a line through his fur.

Instantly realizing what she was tracing Jake sighed "Accident...fifth grade...never mess around the corner of a counter in a human teachers room..."

"A human did this?!"

"No...but the teachers counter did..." he let go and fell to the ground.

Jessica looked down at his arms and took a sharp inhale of air "Did you do these?" she asked pointing to his scarred arms.

He looked at them "Yea...one for each day Maya's suffering because of me..." he was reaching for his shirt when Jessica's hand came across his face.

Jake staggered for a minute before looking at Jessica. She scowled "Don't you DARE blame yourself for that!" she pushed him against a wall "That was NOT your fault! You got me Craeburn?!"

He blinked a few times and began to slide down, sitting on the wall. He looked up and took in what she was wearing. Usual over sized hoody, jeans hung loosely, vans skate shoes. He looked into her eyes and a small whimper came out "I guess I knew that...someone's to blame Jess...I guess I figured it was me..." he looked at the bloodied knife sitting on the table next to his bed, then at the dried up blood on his fur.

"It was the guy who pulled the trigger Jake, now get up, go take a shower, and get dressed, we're going out," Jessica turned around and started to walk out.

"A date?"

"No...you need to get out of this house...we're just going out somewhere," she stepped out and Jake tilted his head.

He slowly got up and grabbed his cloths and then his knife "I still have one more thing to do..." he hid it under his cloths and walked into the bathroom and started the shower, looking at one large and thick line on his left arm, and then a diagonal quick cut on his right. Taking a deep breath he finished the mark on his left arm, cutting a thick sideways mark to complete the cross he started yesterday, refreshing the vertical cut. He then re traced the diagonal one and made another diagonal line going the opposite way. He tossed the knife on the counter and stepped into the shower, taking a deep breath and letting the hot liquid flow over him.

After ten or so minutes he got out and shook off before stepping in front of a heater he had. He looked at his still bleeding arms and dried them off first, wrapping them in a white bandage wrap, letting the blood bleed through before replacing it again. He then reached down and grabbed his jeans, putting them on with his boxers. He looked in the mirror and sighed, what was he doing? Everything was alright before he did one race, and it was one race. He didn't think that any of this would happen. How could he have? He shook off one more time and put on a large dark red layered shirt, the gray under sleeves taking up some of his hands. He put on his cross necklace and then his hat, pushing his large ears down. When he walked out there was a small case on a table in front of the door with a tag that made him smile. To: Jake, From: Jessica.

He opened it and looked down with a smaller smile. Silver dog tags gleamed off the light coming from the open door, silencers next to them. He put the silencers on and then the tags, walking downstairs he saw Jessica laying on the couch sleeping. He walked down quietly and looked down at her. Her ears twitched and he knew she was awake.

"Glad to see that your finally down...ready to go?" she asked giving a curious look.

"Yea...I think I am..." he turned and started walking for his shoes, putting them on "coming?"

Jessica rolled off and got up, walking over and taking him by the arm "Yep, come on,"

Jake was befuddled for a moment before deciding it was a friendly gesture and walking out the door with her. For about an hour they walked randomly around town, talking about whatever they could think of. Jake still had his mind on Maya, and Jessica seemed desperate to get it off of that subject. She led him to the drive leading up to her house.

"Whoa, hold on," Jake stopped and took his hand away from hers "I don't think I really want to be here right now..."

"Chill out Jake...Fox is not home and neither is my brother, they left on vacation...well...okay my Dad's working on finding out what was on that bullet, my brother's on my way to Corneria with Falco for a while..."

"But isn't there a chance that Fox could be home soon?"

"No...he's obsessed about this...not completely sure why...but he won't even leave the room they've given him unless he needs to go to the bathroom...at least from what i've heard...thats almost the case with your Dad too right?"

They started walking towards the dark house and Jake slowly nodded "Yea...except he comes home for a night or so before heading back..."

"Yea...your lucky..." she stopped at the door and opened it, tossing the keys she waited for Jake to get in before closing it and turning on some lights "hungry?"

He shook his head "no...not really..."

Jessica frowned for a little bit and leaned against the door post "So what do you want to do?"

Jake shrugged and looked at the ground.

_**Jessica stared at**_ Jake as he looked around. He had changed, not just in physical appearance. She kept thinking of the fantasies she kept having about her being held in his arms. When she walked in on him working out in his little makeshift gym she was amazed at how much his muscle mass had changed. Even with his shirt little parts of muscle were visible. Jessica thought for a minute and walked forward slowly and curiously, keeping her head slightly tilted.

"Mind following me? Jake?" she stood in front of him and looked up at him.

"Sure...I guess..." he replied.

Jessica then took him by the hand and led him to the living room, dimly lit with nothing but a TV and a couch and some other furnishings in it. She sat Jake down on the couch and at first sat next to him. After a second he put his arm behind her and she scooted closer, eventually moving onto his lap where he buried his head into her arm and started to whimper. She laid her head on his and closed her eyes as he started to cry. She let him stay where he was for several minutes, not saying a word. He stopped almost suddenly and looked up at her. They both leaned forward and Jessica's ears laid back against the back of her head when she realized that she was kissing him. After a minute they stopped and she realized that compared to her, his ears somehow perked up from under his hat to an extent. The time slowly ticked by and after a minute or so of silence she noticed a red bandage under his sleeve. She lifted it up and saw the bleeded image of an X and a cross on them. She looked at him and Jake wouldn't look back.

"I finished what I started..." he finally stated looking at her "I started a cross, I finished it, I started an X, I finished it...I hate leaving things without an ending Jessica..."

Jessica's first thoughts were to be angry, she had told him not to, and he did it not two minutes after she told him. Instead she unraveled the bandages and looked at the bloodied red fur "I understand..."

_**Fox strained his**_ eyes at what he was reading. So far all they knew about the coating was that it reacted to anthropomorphic blood. Somehow it survived through the bullet's exit from the barrel of the gun long enough to hit the intended target. There had to be something they were missing. He looked down at the pieces and sighed. He needed sleep, and food, he needed to go home. He looked at the phone and considered calling Jessica and seeing how she was holding up. She planned on bringing Jacob over for a while to watch TV but whether she did or not he didn't know. He trusted them to not do anything stupid, but teenagers have the tenancy to not do as they're told. He of all people should know from his first experience with Daniel. He picked it up slowly and dialed his number. It rung for a few minutes before the answering machine picked up. He just started to say something when Jessica picked up "Hey Fox, whats up?" her voice chimed through as cheery as could be.

"Nothing...still working on the case...was Jake over today?"

"Yea...he left a while ago though..." she started to laugh.

"What are you laughing about?"

"I'm just watching TV, something funny came on, I turned it down when you called though..."

Fox sighed in relief "Alright, well I won't be home tonight...maybe tomorrow for a little while...if thats the case Daniel can pick up the slack for once.

Jessica yawned "Sorry to cut this short Fox...I'm sorta tired..."

Fox smiled and nodded "Okay...good night..."

"Good night Fox..."

There was a click and the phone's disconnected.

_**Jake stared at the **_ceiling from the bed he was in. Jessica was curled up sleeping next to him and he was left alone to his thoughts. As far as he knew he had been laying there with her for the past few hours after Fox called. His parents would be wondering where he was, of course they trusted him. They probably figured he was at the hospital with Maya. Where he felt he should be. How blind to how people felt was he? According to Jessica this was something she thought about every now and then, but it never crossed his mind. He was starting to doubt himself. He sighed and shook his head "we have school in about three days too..."

Jessica moved a little bit and she yawned, moving and laying her head on his chest he chuckled a little before going back to staring at the ceiling. Looking down one more time he saw she was smiling and he couldn't help but doing so himself. He closed his eyes and hoped he could get a better sleep than he had been getting for the past few days. Eventually after laying still, he drifted away into the realm of illusions known as dreams.


	5. What else can happen

_A/N: Thank you to those who have left reviews and constantly do so, to those who don't please start. Its nice to see people read my story and have opinions on it, whether they're good or bad they always help in knowing what I'm doing right and wrong, as long as they are reasonably written. Thanks. Enjoy the next chapter! _

_Viable-Solution_

_**Jake walked through**_ the rain with his hood up. He was slowly feeling the wetness reach his under cloths but didn't make any attempt to speed up. He stopped for a second as he watched two little kids run out of a house and start playing in the mud that was gradually increasing in mass on the ground. He let a small smile escape his lips and he kept walking. It had been about three to four days since he had slept with Jessica. So far no one knew about it to his knowledge, if she wanted to tell people, as long as they were people she trusted dearly...except maybe his sister, he was fine with it. He walked up the steps into his high school and saw that there were relatively few people in the halls. He looked up and realized he had come earlier than he wanted to, things had been slowed down considerably since word of the shooting got out and what it did. Few anthro's were willing to let themselves get caught in the morning in the dark where they could get caught, even though they could see almost like it was day. Plus the hundreds of worried parents didn't help at all. He walked to the commons of Walled Lake Northern high school and took a seat, setting his back pack on the table he laid his head down and closed his eyes, trying to fall asleep, to no avail. Slowly the school started to fill up and out of habit he looked around for Maya. Realizing after a few minutes that she wasn't going to be there at all. Ever again. He felt a couple hands on his back and before he knew it he was on the ground with Josh Triskan in his face.

"WHY THE FUCK DID YOU LET HER DO THAT?! WHY THE FUCK WAS SHE WITH YOU?!" he screamed as Jake calmly pulled himself up, only to be met with a fist.

"BECAUSE OF YOU! MY SISTER IS DYING IN A HOSPITAL BED! AND-"

"Calm down Josh! Its not his fault, he's not the one who pulled the trigger..." Conner stepped in along with Travis and Alan.

"Yea, but she was with him..." Josh gave him a menacing look before scowling, turning around, and walking away.

Conner, Travis, and Alan looked at him and looked at him as if waiting for someone to start talking. Jake tried to read the expressions on each of their faces, even though he knew they just wanted to know what happened when Maya was hit, he wasn't sure he wanted to tell them.

"Thanks guys," he said finally getting up and looking at the ground.

"Don't worry about it, that was un called for," they looked at each other then back at Jake "so, what happened?"

"I don't want to talk about it guys..." Jake replied turning around as more people began to walk in "Just not right now...coming over later?"

They looked at each other then back at Jake, again, "Only if you tell us what happens then before we do anything,"

Jake sighed and nodded, starting his walk to his first hour algebra class. Things went slower than they usually did, every hour feeling like a hundred, every minute feeling like a thousand. He felt like the worst person in the world, and he knew that in someone's mind...he was. He finished his fourth hour class and slogged down the halls of the upper floors towards the stairs. As he was taking his first steps down he felt a sudden pressure on his back as he was sent flying forward, down the stairs and hitting the table usually placed at its end. He hit several stairs, and he knew that even with the damage from that, Josh wasn't going to let it go. He picked himself up and cracked his neck, pain winding through his body.

"Your mine Craeburn..." his voice lulled through the air "and no one is going to help you..."

"I'm not fighting you Josh..."

"Thats what you think..." he walked menacingly down the stairs as Jake shook his head and turned around, starting to walk away. In an instant Josh was on him, grabbing his back pack and pulling him back.

Jake twisted, turning himself out of his back pack to face Josh. He took a few steps back before turning around and starting to walk away again. Josh got angrier and twisted him around, throwing a right handed punch at his face. Jake let it connect, twisting his head with the impact before spinning and bringing his right arm up, nailing Josh on the side of the head. He reeled back and yelled, running forward and tackling Jake against one of the tables, making it move backwards. Jake snarled and brought his feet against Josh's stomach, flipping them up and bringing the rabbit over the table onto the ground. He stood up and started to walk away. Why was Josh so dead set on losing? It was like he expected Jake to apologize during a beating. Which is probably what he did expect.

"WOLF!" Josh ran forward and threw his fist at Jake's head.

Jake, hearing and partially seeing Josh ducked and grabbed his arm, twisting and judo throwing him over his shoulder. The rabbit cursed as he hit the ground and quickly recovered, running forward faster than he had before, bowling Jake over with the force and beginning to throw jabs at his midsection and face only to be blocked one at a time as Jake tried to recover. Eventually he reached his leg up and threw it over Josh's face and he pulled down, pulling Josh back as Jake's position changed. It wasn't long before he heard yelling as administrators began to finally take notice in the fight, running forward as Josh threw Jake glances of spite and anger. Jake smiled and took himself out of his fighting stance as the administrators ran past him and grabbed Josh.

"What the hell?! He fought too!" he screamed as he tried to attack Jake again.

"He'll be talked to, but I'd worry about yourself!" one screamed back in his face.

As they past Jake he turned and walked next to them "He who does the most damage gets in the most trouble," he grinned, even though a sharp pain coursed through his arm.

_**Jessica smiled easily**_ as she walked into school. At first Fox hadn't been all too eager to let her go with everything going on, but he eventually trusted her enough to get to school. She didn't want to stay at home, not today. Not after her experience with Jake. She sighed as she thought of that night and paused as she saw people laughing and pointing fingers towards the office. She raised her eyebrows and shrugged, mentally making a note to check out what happened. But as she walked inside it was apparent that it had been a fight, blood had been dripped on the steps and there were tables moved aside, couple broken chairs. She gasped as the sight of Jake walking out of the office with a hand grabbing at one of his arms, running forward and opening her mouth to say something.

"Its nothing Jessica, Josh figured that it was my fault...thats all mine," he pointed to the blood "but he's the one with some broken bones...it was in defense...I promise,"

Jessica felt anger flow to her head before it being slowly released as he wrapped his arms around her in a gentle embrace. She sighed as she let go of what had happened, just deciding to be content with his explanation of what had happened.

_**The next few**_ days went by quickly and at the same time, horribly. Jake's confrontation with Josh had been yet another cause for concern in most of the families and school ended up being closed for some time as another percentage of the student body refused to come in. Jake's band had broken up for one reason or another and none of them seemed to care, how could they? Since Maya had been shot there had been nationwide panic as word slowly began to leak through several different sources and people began to get concerned. It was around this time that a small cult like following appeared, and at that same time that several riots had begun to break out. While they were small when executed, they eventually became a larger concern.

Several larger U.S. Cities were the center of attention in these aspects. After several months of dealing with smaller outbreaks of riots, the military decided to take larger action, and despite Jessica's protests, Jake signed up for the USMC. She, with much resistance, began to understand that Jake had an urge that she could never know and slowly and gradually began to support him. Dan had been hired by the military for Knight Squadron, which had become mercenaries after the Earth/Cornerian war, to take care of the more aggressive riots with Star Fox. The only rule being, do whatever it takes.

_**Aerial sat in front **_of the tv and watched the riots as they were being reported by the news teams. Fires were breaking out in random places and hundreds of not thousands of people walked the streets with weapons ranging from firearms to lead pipes. Aerial had been watching the progress of both the now apparently anti-anthro cult known as "The Blood Letters". And what had become obvious within the first few minutes, were all the riots consisted of rather charismatic Blood Letters and all other humans, both male and female. As the camera turned its attention from the crowds to eight rapidly approaching aircraft. Aerial grinned as the sonic blad from the high powered mark VI Hyaku engines on the Knight Squadron Wyvern's blocked out all other sound, quickly followed by the more quiet and less aggressive Arwing engines.

"Good luck Dan...Fox...everyone..."

_**Dan looked down**_ at the crowds and frowned. The military had come to them for a reason, and he doubted it was so that their own job would be easier. Dan had been given control of the mission, as Fox was still in Michigan attempting to find out the substance that had coated that rather fatal bullet which Maya had taken. His vision got blurry as he thought of how badly the teen was beginning to get. She had long outlived her previous expectations, but she hadn't come close at all to coming out of the coma she had gone into. He turned his head to look at the temporary Star Fox squad lead and nodded his head slowly as he clipped his oxygen mask over his muzzle.

Falco had come back from Corneria to fight with the Knights, and Slippy had come back as well. However two new members were with them on this sortie, Tyson McRae and Michael Steele. McRae was a close friend of Dan's, who he had met sometime after the Earth/Corneria war and had quickly grown competitive with in the air services. He was a calm and collected man, only a couple years younger than Dan, and the bobcat had been chosen as the temporary leader. He had lost half of his left ear in the engagements with the aliens known and then forgotten as the Satach. A large spot covered his blind right eye and the five foot four Ace wore the pendant of his wife whom had been killed several years prior to even the war between the two planets. Steele was a hot headed youngling who could barely tell the trigger from his finger. But he was competent and could hold his own.

"Star Fox lead Knights are going in for a quick close up look at what this mob can do over?" Dan asked placing his hands firmly on the grips of his control sticks and waited for a confirmation.

"Roger Knight Lead, watching your back," McRae's voice replied smoothly through the static of the com system.

Dan nodded and angled his nose slightly down, the momentum carrying him closer to the crowd as he looked at the startled faces as hundreds of people temporarily lost their hearing at such a high velocity fly by. His eyes widened and he turned his fighter so the wings were vertical, going hard right as rockets flew past his cock pit.

"Watch it! They have anti air capabilities! I repeat anti-air capabilities!" Dan yelled climbing to a higher altitude.

"Acknowledged Craeburn, we'll watch the-WATCH IT!" McRae screamed and Dan snapped his head to the left as his alarms began to go off, seeing a full twelve man squadron closing in fast.

He inverted and pulled back on the sticks, pulling a split-S, watching as the fighters flew over him. It was going to become a dog fight very quickly. Before he could even see the fighters he was watching missiles flying through the air, missing their targets by mere feet. Before he could do anything else, a large explosion rocked the fighter, and all went black.


	6. Old Man Down

_A/N: Thank you to those who have left reviews and constantly do so, to those who don't please start. Its nice to see people read my story and have opinions on it, whether they're good or bad they always help in knowing what I'm doing right and wrong, as long as they are reasonably written. Thanks. Enjoy the next chapter! _

_Viable-Solution_

_**Jake walked through**_ the rain with his hood up. He was slowly feeling the wetness reach his under cloths but didn't make any attempt to speed up. He stopped for a second as he watched two little kids run out of a house and start playing in the mud that was gradually increasing in mass on the ground. He let a small smile escape his lips and he kept walking. It had been about three to four days since he had slept with Jessica. So far no one knew about it to his knowledge, if she wanted to tell people, as long as they were people she trusted dearly...except maybe his sister, he was fine with it. He walked up the steps into his high school and saw that there were relatively few people in the halls. He looked up and realized he had come earlier than he wanted to, things had been slowed down considerably since word of the shooting got out and what it did. Few anthro's were willing to let themselves get caught in the morning in the dark where they could get caught, even though they could see almost like it was day. Plus the hundreds of worried parents didn't help at all. He walked to the commons of Walled Lake Northern high school and took a seat, setting his back pack on the table he laid his head down and closed his eyes, trying to fall asleep, to no avail. Slowly the school started to fill up and out of habit he looked around for Maya. Realizing after a few minutes that she wasn't going to be there at all. Ever again. He felt a couple hands on his back and before he knew it he was on the ground with Josh Triskan in his face.

"WHY THE FUCK DID YOU LET HER DO THAT?! WHY THE FUCK WAS SHE WITH YOU?!" he screamed as Jake calmly pulled himself up, only to be met with a fist.

"BECAUSE OF YOU! MY SISTER IS DYING IN A HOSPITAL BED! AND-"

"Calm down Josh! Its not his fault, he's not the one who pulled the trigger..." Conner stepped in along with Travis and Alan.

"Yea, but she was with him..." Josh gave him a menacing look before scowling, turning around, and walking away.

Conner, Travis, and Alan looked at him and looked at him as if waiting for someone to start talking. Jake tried to read the expressions on each of their faces, even though he knew they just wanted to know what happened when Maya was hit, he wasn't sure he wanted to tell them.

"Thanks guys," he said finally getting up and looking at the ground.

"Don't worry about it, that was un called for," they looked at each other then back at Jake "so, what happened?"

"I don't want to talk about it guys..." Jake replied turning around as more people began to walk in "Just not right now...coming over later?"

They looked at each other then back at Jake, again, "Only if you tell us what happens then before we do anything,"

Jake sighed and nodded, starting his walk to his first hour algebra class. Things went slower than they usually did, every hour feeling like a hundred, every minute feeling like a thousand. He felt like the worst person in the world, and he knew that in someone's mind...he was. He finished his fourth hour class and slogged down the halls of the upper floors towards the stairs. As he was taking his first steps down he felt a sudden pressure on his back as he was sent flying forward, down the stairs and hitting the table usually placed at its end. He hit several stairs, and he knew that even with the damage from that, Josh wasn't going to let it go. He picked himself up and cracked his neck, pain winding through his body.

"Your mine Craeburn..." his voice lulled through the air "and no one is going to help you..."

"I'm not fighting you Josh..."

"Thats what you think..." he walked menacingly down the stairs as Jake shook his head and turned around, starting to walk away. In an instant Josh was on him, grabbing his back pack and pulling him back.

Jake twisted, turning himself out of his back pack to face Josh. He took a few steps back before turning around and starting to walk away again. Josh got angrier and twisted him around, throwing a right handed punch at his face. Jake let it connect, twisting his head with the impact before spinning and bringing his right arm up, nailing Josh on the side of the head. He reeled back and yelled, running forward and tackling Jake against one of the tables, making it move backwards. Jake snarled and brought his feet against Josh's stomach, flipping them up and bringing the rabbit over the table onto the ground. He stood up and started to walk away. Why was Josh so dead set on losing? It was like he expected Jake to apologize during a beating. Which is probably what he did expect.

"WOLF!" Josh ran forward and threw his fist at Jake's head.

Jake, hearing and partially seeing Josh ducked and grabbed his arm, twisting and judo throwing him over his shoulder. The rabbit cursed as he hit the ground and quickly recovered, running forward faster than he had before, bowling Jake over with the force and beginning to throw jabs at his midsection and face only to be blocked one at a time as Jake tried to recover. Eventually he reached his leg up and threw it over Josh's face and he pulled down, pulling Josh back as Jake's position changed. It wasn't long before he heard yelling as administrators began to finally take notice in the fight, running forward as Josh threw Jake glances of spite and anger. Jake smiled and took himself out of his fighting stance as the administrators ran past him and grabbed Josh.

"What the hell?! He fought too!" he screamed as he tried to attack Jake again.

"He'll be talked to, but I'd worry about yourself!" one screamed back in his face.

As they past Jake he turned and walked next to them "He who does the most damage gets in the most trouble," he grinned, even though a sharp pain coursed through his arm.

_**Jessica smiled easily**_ as she walked into school. At first Fox hadn't been all too eager to let her go with everything going on, but he eventually trusted her enough to get to school. She didn't want to stay at home, not today. Not after her experience with Jake. She sighed as she thought of that night and paused as she saw people laughing and pointing fingers towards the office. She raised her eyebrows and shrugged, mentally making a note to check out what happened. But as she walked inside it was apparent that it had been a fight, blood had been dripped on the steps and there were tables moved aside, couple broken chairs. She gasped as the sight of Jake walking out of the office with a hand grabbing at one of his arms, running forward and opening her mouth to say something.

"Its nothing Jessica, Josh figured that it was my fault...thats all mine," he pointed to the blood "but he's the one with some broken bones...it was in defense...I promise,"

Jessica felt anger flow to her head before it being slowly released as he wrapped his arms around her in a gentle embrace. She sighed as she let go of what had happened, just deciding to be content with his explanation of what had happened.

_**The next few**_ days went by quickly and at the same time, horribly. Jake's confrontation with Josh had been yet another cause for concern in most of the families and school ended up being closed for some time as another percentage of the student body refused to come in. Jake's band had broken up for one reason or another and none of them seemed to care, how could they? Since Maya had been shot there had been nationwide panic as word slowly began to leak through several different sources and people began to get concerned. It was around this time that a small cult like following appeared, and at that same time that several riots had begun to break out. While they were small when executed, they eventually became a larger concern.

Several larger U.S. Cities were the center of attention in these aspects. After several months of dealing with smaller outbreaks of riots, the military decided to take larger action, and despite Jessica's protests, Jake signed up for the USMC. She, with much resistance, began to understand that Jake had an urge that she could never know and slowly and gradually began to support him. Dan had been hired by the military for Knight Squadron, which had become mercenaries after the Earth/Cornerian war, to take care of the more aggressive riots with Star Fox. The only rule being, do whatever it takes.

_**Aerial sat in front **_of the tv and watched the riots as they were being reported by the news teams. Fires were breaking out in random places and hundreds of not thousands of people walked the streets with weapons ranging from firearms to lead pipes. Aerial had been watching the progress of both the now apparently anti-anthro cult known as "The Blood Letters". And what had become obvious within the first few minutes, were all the riots consisted of rather charismatic Blood Letters and all other humans, both male and female. As the camera turned its attention from the crowds to eight rapidly approaching aircraft. Aerial grinned as the sonic blad from the high powered mark VI Hyaku engines on the Knight Squadron Wyvern's blocked out all other sound, quickly followed by the more quiet and less aggressive Arwing engines.

"Good luck Dan...Fox...everyone..."

_**Dan looked down**_ at the crowds and frowned. The military had come to them for a reason, and he doubted it was so that their own job would be easier. Dan had been given control of the mission, as Fox was still in Michigan attempting to find out the substance that had coated that rather fatal bullet which Maya had taken. His vision got blurry as he thought of how badly the teen was beginning to get. She had long outlived her previous expectations, but she hadn't come close at all to coming out of the coma she had gone into. He turned his head to look at the temporary Star Fox squad lead and nodded his head slowly as he clipped his oxygen mask over his muzzle.

Falco had come back from Corneria to fight with the Knights, and Slippy had come back as well. However two new members were with them on this sortie, Tyson McRae and Michael Steele. McRae was a close friend of Dan's, who he had met sometime after the Earth/Corneria war and had quickly grown competitive with in the air services. He was a calm and collected man, only a couple years younger than Dan, and the bobcat had been chosen as the temporary leader. He had lost half of his left ear in the engagements with the aliens known and then forgotten as the Satach. A large spot covered his blind right eye and the five foot four Ace wore the pendant of his wife whom had been killed several years prior to even the war between the two planets. Steele was a hot headed youngling who could barely tell the trigger from his finger. But he was competent and could hold his own.

"Star Fox lead Knights are going in for a quick close up look at what this mob can do over?" Dan asked placing his hands firmly on the grips of his control sticks and waited for a confirmation.

"Roger Knight Lead, watching your back," McRae's voice replied smoothly through the static of the com system.

Dan nodded and angled his nose slightly down, the momentum carrying him closer to the crowd as he looked at the startled faces as hundreds of people temporarily lost their hearing at such a high velocity fly by. His eyes widened and he turned his fighter so the wings were vertical, going hard right as rockets flew past his cock pit.

"Watch it! They have anti air capabilities! I repeat anti-air capabilities!" Dan yelled climbing to a higher altitude.

"Acknowledged Craeburn, we'll watch the-WATCH IT!" McRae screamed and Dan snapped his head to the left as his alarms began to go off, seeing a full twelve man squadron closing in fast.

He inverted and pulled back on the sticks, pulling a split-S, watching as the fighters flew over him. It was going to become a dog fight very quickly. Before he could even see the fighters he was watching missiles flying through the air, missing their targets by mere feet. Before he could do anything else, a large explosion rocked the fighter, and all went black.

**_A/N: It is going to take me a little longer to update each chapter, for multiple reasons, the most prominant being I am working on three stories. Be patient, and thank you for reviewing._**


End file.
